Laura took the time to look up all sorts of facts and figures about how we actually spend our time, and broke it down throughout the book, which was great. I love facts and statistics but in the end I could have stopped after the first chapter because I got what I needed. In the first bit of the book she used the example of playing with your kids. She explained that many parents say, "I don't have time, there's too much to do." To that, she called bullshit, straight up. She said it's either a priority or it's not. You either think it's important to spend time with them so you make it a priority, or you don't think it's important so you don't make it a priority. Simple. As. That. She stated that the average time a parent spends playing with their child is only 20 minutes. TWENTY MINUTES out of 24 hours. That's insane, considering the average person spend 2.8 hours watching TV!
Since I don't have kids, I replaced that thought with Roxanne. I probably spend about 20 minutes playing with her a day. Sure, I let her go outside and play, but I don't do much with her. So now I've made it a goal to go on more runs or walks with her. Because I'm making it a priority, I'm finding it easier to fit time in my day to be sure she gets play time with me.
Another thing I am making my priority is scholarships. I've been telling myself that I don't have time for them and that I might not get them anyways so it's a waste of time, but it's not. Even if I get a $1000 scholarship after spending 40 hours writing essays/filling out applications, I'm making $25 an hour! A lot of deadlines for scholarships are around March, so I plan on spending at least 5 hours a week (but hopefully more) researching/applying for scholarships until then.
I've found myself doing a LOT more with my days recently, and it's been great. I've always wanted to make tinctures/herbal remedies, but I've always said it's too long of a process. I came across this blog and decided I did have the time and that I was going to just start. So I did! I made my first mint tincture with mint from my garden that I'll use for stomach aches, the flu, colds, and toothaches, among other things. Next I'm going to make this cold/flu tincture as well as these cough drops so I'm ready for the sick season.
What kind of things do you say you don't have time for, but you really do? If you have time to watch even one single TV show in your day, you have time to do something!
